Updated Itinerary
We are flying to Athens, Greece on Sep 5, 2007. We will spend 2-3 weeks in Greece and then 3-4 weeks in Turkey.
Bill and Jeeheon stumble around the world 4/23/2007~4/11/2008
We are flying to Athens, Greece on Sep 5, 2007. We will spend 2-3 weeks in Greece and then 3-4 weeks in Turkey.
Posted by Jeeheon at 9:32 AM 3 comments
Tomatina is the annual tomato throwing festival, held in the small town of Bunol (population: 9,000). It supposedly originated in 1944 with a fight between friends. The festival starts at 11am and lasts for 2 hours, during which the city drives in loads of tomatoes for people to throw at each other.
My favorite - grandma hosing people down on the street with water:
The aftermath:
For me, Tomatina was like Mardi Gras - I am glad I´ve been, but will probably never go again.
Posted by Jeeheon at 8:36 AM 4 comments
We took two day trips from Madrid, to Segovia and Toledo.
Segovia -
Gothic cathedral:
Alcazar castle:
Plaza Major:
Vera Cruz church, erected by the Knights Templar in the 13th Century:
Aqueduct, built at the end of the first century by the Romans to bring water to the city:
Bill´s sixteen year old niece Brittany is travelling with us in Spain for ten days (That´s her in the picture with me above). It´s fun having her here. We have noticed, though, that she always walks half a block behind us. We were wondering whether we were walking too fast, until we finally realized that Brittany is doing the ´I don´t know those people in front of me, I am here by myself´ walk. Remember pretending not to be related to our parents when we were teenagers? Have we become that uncool?
Toledo - Medieval city, full of Gothic architecture, with Muslim and Jewish influence:
Posted by Jeeheon at 5:02 AM 6 comments
We went to see a bull fight at Plaza de Torros. I had been to a bull fight once before in Mexico City, but had forgotten how bloody it was! Though I still thought the American woman crying hysterically was being melodramatic.
These are the people that first come out to the ring, stabbing the bull enough to make it mad and weak.Then the matador, with the smaller red cape, makes an entrance and finishes the bull off. Here is a video clip of the matador finale (WARNING: CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES OF SLOW AND VIOLENT ANIMAL DEATH. Really not for the squeamish.):
Borrowing the words of Hemingway (that we read not from the original story, but from our guidebook): ¨The bull fight is not a sport in the Anglo-Saxon sense of the word, that is, it is not an equal contest or an attempt at an equal contest between a bull and a man. Rather, it is a tragedy; the death of the bull, which is played, more or less well, by the bull and the man involved and in which there is danger for the man but certain death for the bull.¨
The rule at a corrida is that you can´t leave in the middle of a bull fight. I didn`t know and got yelled at by some angry Spaniards.
Retiro Park (Madrid´s Central Park):
Gran Via:
Plaza Mayor. We are doing a lot of coffee drinking at cafes:
The palace and cathedral:
Lunch: I ordered this tapas thinking it was potato casserole. It tasted more like very chewy fish. When I was done, I asked the waitress what type of fish it was - nope, it´s bull intestines:
The Spaniards party late! This is a picture taken from our first hotel room at 6am - you can see the drunk and loud people still hanging out:
We moved hotels the next day. The new hotel has a funny owner - he knocked on our door at 1pm and asked ¨are you gonna see Spain or sleep all day?¨ We had jet lag! (And being on the road for 4 months, we tend to sleep a lot.)
Posted by Jeeheon at 4:40 AM 14 comments
Despite some voting irregularities (those of you that voted more than once - have you no respect for the democratic process?), Bill has accepted the majority opinion. Here are some Bill speedo pictures:After almost four month, we are finally leaving South America and headed to Spain. We had a great time here and picked up some rudimentary Spanish along the way. We will definitely be coming back!
Posted by Jeeheon at 3:39 PM 8 comments
Posted by Jeeheon at 10:02 AM 10 comments
Posted by Jeeheon at 1:55 PM 8 comments
Iguazu Falls sit on the border of Argentina and Brazil. First, we went to the Argentinean side of Iguazu Falls. It is currently school vacation time in Argentina and it was insanely crowded. We practically had to stand in line to get a view and people elbowed each other to take pictures - terrible:
Posted by Jeeheon at 2:24 PM 11 comments